Commander

It’s finally here, and we’re not just talking about save/load, but rather the release as a whole. Release build 79317 may be one of the most extensive balance updates Planetary Annihilation has seen, and it has been painstakingly done in conjunction with you, the PA community, thanks to PTE testing.

This is the build that will be used in this weekend’s Evil Twins Finals tournament, so come along and watch if you want to see what a difference the balance changes make.

The build contains not only save/load for AI skirmish games (this is a first pass, later updates will bring it to Galactic War and multiplayer) but also balance changes which have thoroughly changed the opening game. Don’t forget to update your mods, and to test with them disabled before reporting technical issues.

I’ll let Uber Entertainment’s jables speak for the build:

“Hey all! Over the last month, we’ve been pushing on getting save/load working in the single player side of PA. We’ve also done tons of balance tweaks based on feedback and our balance folks watching replays and streams, added 2 new maps (1 for ranked play and 1 for general play), did some fairly big performance improvements for large army fights, and hit as many bugs and polish items as we could.

This is the first pass of our save/load work, so you’ll see it missing items we want in the final. That being said, we are currently working on those elements, but since this version was working, we wanted to go ahead and get it out so you could use it. I’ve explained what is in this version below (single player AI skirmish saving), as well as what we hope to get in next (galactic war mid game saving and resume from anywhere in a replay loading). Take a look, and if you want to join the conversation, or run into any issues, please join us over on the Uber forums!“

Save/Load (first pass)

An empty screen of possibilities…

Very first pass on Save/Load now in game in its beta form (there will be some bugs, but we wanted to get this out for players to make use of asap)

Save/Load now works with AI Free For All skirmish

Currently it will not remember dynamic alliances

Currently has issues with alliances ending the game

Save/Load currently does not function for Galactic War

Spectating won’t work after you lose a loaded game

The sim will freeze while saving. This could take shorter or longer depending on amount of stuff being saved

You can also view save files as a replay

In the future this will allow you to pick a spot in chronocam and load the game there, though it is not yet functioning

Next passes will be adding some of the missing functionality from above, including Galactic War and resume from anywhere in a replay.

Balance

General

Added air_pbaoe ammo (air units with this will do AE damage on death)

Damage set to 30

Splash Radius set to 1.5

Splash Damages Allies set to True

All radar units that require energy to see the surface layer now require energy to see the underwater layer

Commander and missile turret weapons now prioritize pelicans over other non-prioritized air units

A part of the winter sale of 2013/14, this one has been a long time coming, but finally the Ajax commander has arrived. Anyone who purchased Planetary Annihilation prior to the 2nd January 2014 should now find the Ajax in their armory. If you don’t see it there but purchased Planetary Annihilation prior to this date then contact Uber support.

New Commanders

AceAI

Enzomatrix

The PTEs are landing thick and fast now as Uber react to data collected through player games. If you haven’t already, stream some PTE games, Uber will often arrive to see how theory does when it meets reality. People streaming the PTE are taking part in shaping the future balance of Planetary Annihilation.

Nothing mind blowing in this update, primarily it’s some tweaks to changes that were previously made based on player experiences so far. Also the AI is less likely to suicide its commander in an orbital transport.

Balance

Frigate (Narwhal)

Fixed issue where the narwhal was using the destroyer’s torpedo instead of its own.